Trump, obviously, needs to be prosecuted for every crime he’s committed and barred from running from office again. All the insurrectionists in elected office who rejected the presidential election result must be expelled from power. We need to address the arcane, Electoral College and the excruciating process of certifying the presidential election, which could have easily been hijacked by the president and his party.
But among all these massive tasks, there is only one that will make the others possible: We must destroy the Republican Party as we know it.
Unfortunately, the only people who have the power to complete this crucial task with the speed it demands are Republicans’ favorite people — corporations. The Supreme Court has systematically made it much easier for corporations to buy an election and harder for people to vote in one. And corporations have lapped up the benefits by electing Republicans eager to slash their taxes and consumers' protections.
The business community has tacitly admitted the role it plays in enabling Republican extremism with the various pledges companies have made to stop, at least temporarily, funding candidates who voted against confirming Joe Biden’s victory. But these face-saving gestures are not nearly enough.
The Chamber of Commerce spent over $100 million over the past decade electing Republicans. Even before Trump’s attempted coup, the organization was already trying to figure out how to separate from the GOP.
The dog whistles and coded white nationalism Republicans have used to gain power intentionally divided this country for more than a half century. And when the right recognized that this approach wasn’t enough to win in an increasingly diverse country, it fixated on unnecessary voting restrictions and unconscionable gerrymandering. The caricature of democracy invited conspiratorial extremists into the party, and then into the White House and Congress.
There is a need to take on not only the conspiracy freaks but also “legitimate” Republicans who objected to confirming the election results and keep pushing the Big Lie that Trump’s 7-million vote loss wasn’t legitimate.
If the interests that help make the GOP possible don’t start correcting the damage they’ve done, they’re just another part of the cancer America needs to remove from our dying democracy.